Partnership Possibilities
CircleTalk is a training program that provides an equitable experience for individuals and organizations from all walks of life. If you’re committed to strengthening the social fabric of your community by addressing loneliness and social isolation, we invite you to join us in making a difference.
See examples of our inclusive communities below. Contact us to explore your community needs.
Advocacy Groups
Why CircleTalk works for you:
Advocates can play a pivotal role in promoting social engagement. By equipping them with the knowledge and skills to lead meaningful group conversations, we can create a more connected society and address issues of loneliness and isolation.
Who could be trained:
- Volunteers
- Ombudsmen
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Patient/Family/Caregivers
- Community Members
- Policy Advocates
- Special Interest Groups
- Support Networks
- Others. Contact us.
Adult Day Centers
If you work in an adult day center and want to support participants in life enrichment and healthy living, we can train social workers, residential life and program coordinators, volunteers and even family members to lead CircleTalk Circles.
The important work of an ADC cannot be underscored. Give your center the reputation of excelling in their social engagement focus!
Why CircleTalk Works for you:
- Helps successfully transition new participants.
- Integrates new participants into a familiar sub-community (Circle), immediately.
- Creates small communities and relationships within your center.
- Increases sense of belonging and support new relationships for all participants.
- Reduces potential for social isolation by building a shared a social network.
- Provides a unique and effective program for staff to connect and learn more about participants through a small group, conversation-based approach.
Behavioral Health
Why CircleTalk works for you:
- Effective in settings working with those impacted by mental and behavioral health challenges.
- Sets up a joyful environment, engaging all in fun and meaningful conversations and activities.
- Complements settings that offer specialized programming to stimulate the intellect and engage individuals in success-oriented social interactions.
Who could be trained:
- Anyone working with populations with behavorial and mental health challenges.
- Students in social work programs and other behavioral health preparation programs.
- Peers.
- Others. Contact us.
Community Centers/Intergenerational Groups
Why CircleTalk works for you:
- The nature of a community center is to open its doors to diverse populations and create a sense of belonging.
- Provides all-important high quality social experiences and opportunities for connecting to others in purposeful, meaningful ways.
- Engages groups in a way that facilitates and retains group connections and engages the group with each other in completely new way.
- Structured so to easily fit into the program catalog format.
- Builds an affinity group to gather and talk in a safe space and establish new relationships that may be key to positive health behaviors.
- As they evolve, affinity groups make a safe space available and for people who deal with similar experiences. They allow members to share a group identity.
Where Circles Can Happen:
- Senior Centers
- Faith-Based Organizations
- Recreation Centers
- Congregate Meal Sites
- Low-Income Housing
- Any place people gather. Contact us.
Healthcare Education Programs
Why CircleTalk works for you:
Prepare upcoming professionals, practitioners and advocates in higher healthcare education settings to deliver programming that matters to communities and people when learning how to care for and support the physical, mental, and social health of at-risk populations in meaningful ways.
Upcoming professionals in areas such as:
- Gerontology
- Social Work
- Clinical
- Public and Community Health
- Healthcare Administration
- Others. Contact us.
Health Coaches
Why CircleTalk works for you:
- Whole and person-centered care supports the physical, mental and social health of individuals, including those impacted by many health conditions
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- Social engagement programming provides a vehicle for health coaches to interact with their respective cohorts to strengthen the social aspect of whole-person health
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- Themes and topics of discussion are lighthearted and allow connection through something other than the individual’s condition
- Can be integrated into other educational formats that health coaches use as well as be a discreet standalone program for health coaches to implement
- Provides a format for continuing peer discussions and building social health opportunities into health coaching practices
Health Systems
Why CircleTalk works for you:
The Surgeon General’s report emphasizes that loneliness and social isolation are not just emotional issues but can also lead to serious health problems, including increased risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia and premature death. The impact of loneliness and isolation is compared to that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
For Age – Friendly Health System recognized health systems, social isolation and loneliness are rising to top as high priority issues to address under the Age – Friendly Health Systems 4M framework and What Matters.
Health Plans
Why CircleTalk:
The Surgeon General’s report emphasizes that loneliness and social isolation are not just emotional issues but can also lead to serious health problems, including increased risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia and premature death. The impact of loneliness and isolation is compared to that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Whole- and person-centered care supports the physical, mental and social health of communities and populations, including those impacted by social drivers of health. CircleTalk sets up a joyful environment for both staff and participants, engaging all in fun and meaningful conversations and activities that directly impact social isolation and loneliness.
How CircleTalk Can Work With You:
- Integration of social engagement programming as a member benefit
- Identifying individuals in local communities who can lead CircleTalk social engagement programming for plan members
- Utilizing pre- and post- evaluation and other feedback loop tools to assess and report CircleTalk impact
- Providing newsletter articles for member education
- Others. Contact us.
Home Care
Home health care providers understand that the caregiver role can be physically and emotionally demanding. If you own or manage home a home health care agency, the quality of staffing challenges, staff communications and collaboration, healthy work culture and higher quality interaction between client and caregiver.
Distinguish yourself as an excellent provider and accentuate the connection between clients and caregivers is essential. Your caregivers, managers and social work team can be trained to easily engage clients and family members in meaningful and deeper ways with CircleTalk tools.
Why CircleTalk works for you:
- Gives caregivers easy-to-use tools to build stronger communication and higher quality relationships with their clients.
- Increases frequency of meaningful engagement and interactions between caregivers and clients, including family members.
- Increases the overall satisfaction with your company’s services by building a culture of connection as a core value in your services.
- Recruit and retain staff by encouraging healthy work culture and train caregivers in one-on-one engagement practices that are beneficial for caregivers and clients.
Memory Care
If you work in a memory care setting and support residents in life enrichment and quality living, CircleTalk allows you to deepen social engagement programming. We train social workers, residential life and program coordinators, volunteers and even family members to lead CircleTalk Circles.
Why CircleTalk Works for you:
- Curriculum designed for memory care residents (based on field testing program customization).
- A structured engagement practice and activities, setting up a joyful environment.
- Engages all in fun, multi-sensory activities.
- A specialized program that stimulates the intellect and engages individuals in success-oriented social interactions.
Older Adult/55+ Residential Communities
What matters most to older adults is the choice and ability to “age in place.” According to the Livable Communities Research conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons, nearly 90 percent of seniors intend to continue living in their current homes for the next five to 10 years. A fundamental concern is how our innovative, community-based solutions improve quality of life and expand choices at all stages of aging, while addressing the real risk of social isolation and loneliness.
If you are a member of a 55+ community, you can be trained to bring CircleTalk programs offer opportunities for new relationships and caring community.
Why CircleTalk works for you:
- Maintain independence and quality of life and build connections to successfully bring people into a social network.
- Establishs an environment of connection for newcomers.
- Reach out to the people who need and want to feel that their life includes others, including new friends, who are on this journey of supported community and independence.
Public Health
Why CircleTalk works for you:
The Surgeon General’s report emphasizes that loneliness and social isolation are not just emotional issues but can also lead to serious health problems, including increased risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia and premature death. The impact of loneliness and isolation is compared to that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Whole- and person-centered care supports the physical, mental and social health of communities and populations, including those impacted by social drivers of health. CircleTalk sets up a joyful environment for both staff and participants, engaging all in fun and meaningful conversations and activities that have shown to directly impact social isolation and loneliness.
Who could be trained:
- Local Public Health Agency Staff
- Volunteers
- Health Education Program Staff
- Grantees
- Community Health Workers
- Faith-Based Organization Staff
- Peers
- Others. Contact us.
Skilled Nursing Facilities
Members of clinical teams or other key staff in skilled nursing communities have new responsibilities in assuring that they support resident needs to prevent social isolation and loneliness.
Why CircleTalk works for you:
- Skilled nursing facilities need to care plan to MDS Item D0700: Social Isolation to reduce feelings of social isolation with their residents. CircleTalk has been field-tested for 14 years and been shown to impact social isolation with older adults.
- Easily integrated into your staff meetings. Introduce ways for staff to engage with each other, know more about each other and share challenges and “wins” in a demanding work environment.
- Elevates staff interactions with each other and grows a more connected and positive work culture.
- By screening for and recognizing loneliness as a risk factor for worsened PD severity, staff become more proactive in preventing social isolation.
- Has all the tools you need; group activities and group discussion prompts, supported by a trained leaders that make inter-patient connection available to all including those residents experiencing MCI.